ATI Radeon HD 2X00 (2400,2600,2900) series owners thread

[tetsuo55]

For x264/h264 i use coreavc
for Mpeg2 i use Dscaler5 or cyberlink mpeg2 decoder

For original discs i use cyberlink powerdvd ultra

[Mastiff]

CoreAVC uses the same codecs as VLC, I think. So that would probably be a part of the explanation. I'm still amazed that it's possible with a five year old CPU, though.

[tetsuo55]

VLC uses a different codec, CoreAVC is closed source after all.

there is nothing strange about it at all, in fact the slowest core2duo's run at lower GHZ than my AthlonXP, its just that their pipelines are better and that they support newer Simd extentions like sse2 and sse3

i think any 1 ghz+ computer should be able to run any videocontent with the help of a DXVA videocard, so cyberlinks SSE2 only approach is stupid(especially since MMX and SSE cpu's fall back to software decode)

Imho these hardware accelerated agp cards where made for non sse2 computers and thus cyberlink should update their codecs

[Mastiff]

Or ATI should make drivers that work. Or even better: Their tech guys could try shoot a few E-mails back and forth and see if they could solve it together! But we all know that isn't gonna happen with all the pointy haired morons running the show... I feel sorry for those who have the AGP cards, but I'm afraid I don't think ATI's putting too much work into supporting the day before yesterday's technology.

[uberman45]

Yeah,

starting from the athlonXP 2500+ any hdready content is playable without videocard assistance

So 720P MKV video is fully playable, MPEG2 is in my case playable in 1080p, 1080i can be done, but with a quick deinterlacing algorythm that will cause jaggies
Thats great tetsuo55! If you can play 720p and all you have to do is add a inexpensive video card for 1080p then thats great news for some people that have old equipment. Since I use an OLD outdated Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gig mem and 2600 512 Pro as my HTPC, I would love to dig out my older AMD Athlon XP 2200+ processor and MB and use that for my HTPC. Now were talking GREEN. It's a shame when some people think you need the latest hardware to run HD content and blast you when you can get away with running older technology. My hats off to those that do.:) PS: I use my video card for the HDMI interface on the Sony KDF-46E2000 via the ATI adapter and Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard and Mouse 7000. Nice neat package.

[kosmonooit]

lol whats a 'pointy haired moron' ?

Anyway greetings all, my first post. Came across this forum recently whilst research for my setup, and its been good reading. I have had the luxury of piecing together a 'HTPC' from scratch based on a Core 2 Duo 2.33, Intel DG33TL 'Media Series' mobo, 2GB RAM, Saphire HD2800 Pro, LG BD/HD DVD drive, Antec case hooked up to Onkyo 5,1 system with an Acer 32" LCD, Vista home premium (I took the plunge), Micro$oft Home Entertainment 8000 kbd/mouse set just got it all working, havent tested a BD/HD DVD yet, they still in the post.

I am using a 15" LCD as the primary (used Dell), the 32" Acer TV as the secondary, both hooked up via DVI just sussing it out at this stage since for years I have had my home PC hooked up via coax to the home hifi system for years but come stuck with HD content and since a lot of nature programs like BBC's Planet Earth and Blue Planet have been published in HD, there was no turning back. I plan on using Power DVD Ultra and Zoom player when I can since thats a great piece of software, Winamp for music (old habits die hard). I have a gigabit Ethernet connection to my study PC where I will store all the media (clunker at the moment, Quad core coming soon)

My existing set in my study use a Dual screen Maxtor card that supported 'Video Overlay' that outputed PAL video to the RCA dongle, now from what I can figure to get my dual screen system to work is to set the screens as a 1,2 arrangement, drag PowerDVD over to the big screen when I am ready to watch, maximise it on the second screen. PowerDVD has a dual screen setup option to stream the video to the second screen but those options are greyed out for some reason, maybe there is another seamles and hassle free way to run dual screen setup, perhaps someone can advise. Other option would be to have the same res on both displays and run clone mode? Both are 60Hz refresh rate.

I am hoping it will all work as advertised, and I dont have to spend time tweaking registry settings and running hacked gizmos, although I havent managed to get though the 126 pages of this thread yet to find my answers I am sure they are there somewhere.

Thanks again for all the informative postings.

[tetsuo55]

Don;t rush out and buy a new videocard, as long as there is no DXVA/h264 non-sse2 decoder only VC1 and MPEG2 will be accelerated

[Mastiff]

lol whats a 'pointy haired moron' ?
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/the_characters/index.html#boss
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/the_characters/images/icon_the_boss.gif

[DPlettner]

Don;t rush out and buy a new videocard, as long as there is no DXVA/h264 non-sse2 decoder only VC1 and MPEG2 will be acceleratedFWIW, AVC/H264 from either HD DVD or BRD plays back great on my Athlon XP 3200+ nForce2 PC with a VisionTek 2600 Pro 512MB AGP card.

This is a Barton CPU, so it does not have SSE2.

I am using PDVD 3319a.

-Dave

[spelosi]

FWIW, AVC/H264 from either HD DVD or BRD plays back great on my Athlon XP 3200+ nForce2 PC with a VisionTek 2600 Pro 512MB AGP card.

This is a Barton CPU, so it does not have SSE2.

I am using PDVD 3319a.

-Dave

H264 plays back great in what resolution? 720p or 1080p?

My amd 32 bit Athlon XP running at 2.4 ghz with an x800 xl can ALMOST play back 1080p well. I get some frame drops here and there and it causes the audio to lose sync. I am looking for a solution, and was jus thinking of the 2600 line of cards.

Thanks.

[MitchBart]

It would be a good deal if I could get it to work. No Luck on HDMI connection at all -
Also a website I view a lot that displays Flash based video as a full screen option displays only two triangles in full screen mode (this worked fine with my previous X600 based video card) in both DVI and VGA in all supported resolutions.

Ok, I got the card to output to the HDMI, clearly the VGA and HDMI cannot be connected and active at the same time on this new style card (Two techs at Diamond MM told me otherwise today!) I was able to connect to the VGA display with the DVI-VGA adapter so both connections now work. Audio is good as well with the realtek drivers.

Now on to "Full Screen" Flash - this worked with my previous X600 card!

I just see a blank screen or the screen cut into two different triangles in full screen mode!

http://www.flashcomguru.com/apps/fullscreen_player9/fullscreen.htm

This site is an example of full screen flash and it doesn't display.

Any thoughts - does this site work in full screen mode with your card, if so what drivers. I currently have the newest 7.12 drivers.

Thanks.

[DPlettner]

H264 plays back great in what resolution? 720p or 1080p?

My amd 32 bit Athlon XP running at 2.4 ghz with an x800 xl can ALMOST play back 1080p well. I get some frame drops here and there and it causes the audio to lose sync. I am looking for a solution, and was jus thinking of the 2600 line of cards.

Thanks.I am using 1080p.

-Dave

[Gaizka]

Hi there,
Yesterday i try new 7.12 drivers set from ati on my Radeon 2400Pro Agp system. I can't believe that i have to modify .inf files because de setup program do not reconogice my agp card :mad: . This drivers does not fix anything for me. I can DVXA only Mpeg2 at 720p and 1080p with 30-50% CPU utlization on may Athlon XP 1900+.
I think DVXA of h264 is a fake from Ati on this Agp cards and will never work correctly. CPU utilization is 100% on h264 at 1080p and 50-70 at 720p and there is nothing i can do to solve this problem.
I spend 60€ with this 2400pro agp card but that is cheap compared with over 30-40 hours i waste making this to work...
This was may first and last Ati Graphics card. I always buy 3dfx and now nvidia cards because i think they are better supported.

Regard,

Good Bye Ati !!!

[tetsuo55]

FWIW, AVC/H264 from either HD DVD or BRD plays back great on my Athlon XP 3200+ nForce2 PC with a VisionTek 2600 Pro 512MB AGP card.

This is a Barton CPU, so it does not have SSE2.

I am using PDVD 3319a.

-Dave

Are you sure DXVA is enabled?
What version of windows are you using?
What version of the ati drivers are you using?

Does it work outside of powerdvd? like in media player classic for example?

[tparikh]

I was bidding on a 2600 Pro AGP on ebay for the last couple of days, I put my max at $80 before reading almost all of this thread....well with 4 hours to go I thought I was doomed with what seems to be this worthless AGP card. But looks like some other nut just outbid me, of course to my pleasure, now I dont have to go through the headache that most other AGP users had.

I know this is in the wrong forum, but can anyone else reccomend something other then a 2X00 for 720p video play? I dont need blu-ray playback, just something much better then my intel on board video I am using now.

Thanks,

[mijoeldotor]

That's quite normal - the "GPU" measured there isn't the bit used for decoding h264/vc1, it only does deinterlacing, scaling and other postprocessing. If you minimise the window so it's not scaling it'll be at 2% or something.

Try playing some interlaced mpeg2, then you'll see the poor thing working its nuts off.

I´m a little confused about what thing is done in the cpu or the gpu. I'm new in the htpc word and instead of reading and reading the posts can´t order my mind.
The decoding is 100% done in the cpu? If the gpu only make the deinterlacing, scaling and posprocessing (10% usage) why not to use a on board video and let the cpu do the rest?
May be you can link me to a thead where I can go for the begining...:D

[doctorcilantro]

FYI - the cyberlink H264 decoder works when you install the newest version of PowerDVD - YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY & REGISTER POWERDVD TO ENABLE DXVA OF H264.

DC

[Lawguy]

I am done with AGP.

For the cost of a new motherboard, memory and videocard, I now have hardware acceleration.

It is nice when things just work.

[arfster]

I´m a little confused about what thing is done in the cpu or the gpu. I'm new in the htpc word and instead of reading and reading the posts can´t order my mind.


The card has 2 components important here:

UVD: does h264 and VC1 acceleration, so the CPU is doing pretty much nothing

Shaders: do mpeg2 acceleration (not full, roughly halfs CPU usage), and deinterlacing, scaling, denoising, sharpening, etc.

[ditcho]

I think DVXA of h264 is a fake from Ati on this Agp cards and will never work correctly. CPU utilization is 100% on h264 at 1080p and 50-70 at 720p and there is nothing i can do to solve this problem.

The fact that you can actually play any kind of 1080p h264 material at any resolution (in your case 720p) on such a weak processor means that the HW acceleration on the card is actually working. You will not see better numbers with any kind of video card, unless you upgrade your CPU.
Your other 2 big mistakes are:
1) Mixing 3-4 year old with current technology (applies to all PC technology)
2) Buying the cheapest video card and expecting great results (applies to everything in general)

[MikeSM]

I am done with AGP.

For the cost of a new motherboard, memory and videocard, I now have hardware acceleration.

It is nice when things just work.

DDR2 ram is dirt cheap these days anyway. You can get a decent CPU/RAM/MB for $125 these days if you buy from Fry's sales.

Why keep messing with AGP when the price is so cheap to move on? And you can sell your PC3200 ram for a premium.

[Gaizka]

The fact that you can actually play any kind of 1080p h264 material at any resolution (in your case 720p) on such a weak processor means that the HW acceleration on the card is actually working. You will not see better numbers with any kind of video card, unless you upgrade your CPU.
Your other 2 big mistakes are:
1) Mixing 3-4 year old with current technology (applies to all PC technology)
2) Buying the cheapest video card and expecting great results (applies to everything in general)

ditcho my Radeon 2400 PRO Agp card system requeriments are:

Pentium or Athlon Compatible CPU
128 MB system memory
Mother Board with free AGP (4x/8x) slot

i read a lot of threads and reviews that claims this card utilices 3-10% of cpu playing h264 full hd content on athlon XP 1900+ cpus and this systems are Agp based like mine.

I think buying 2400 pro i do my best because with 2600 i would have the same results on DVXA.

I mix 3-4 years technology because ati offers me posibility for do that telling me promises of playing today 1080p videos on my old Agp system.

DVXA is no working on h264 720p content because Dvxa checkbox is greyed and disabled on powerDvd 7.3ultra and GPU utlization is over 10-20% running the GPU at 100Mhz!!! :-(
.

[emilot]

So to anyone with,

WINDOWS XP and
2400 AGP

try this package,

cnc.download.colorful.cn/VGA/ATI/amd_sample_8.40_rc3_xp_july16_br50518.rar

It is the only one that i have HA on everything, and CPU utilization 4-8%.

Try it if you have the time.....

Of course after the installation you must apply the registry tweaks...

Good luck everyone.

[spelosi]

So to anyone with,

WINDOWS XP and
2400 AGP

try this package,

cnc.download.colorful.cn/VGA/ATI/amd_sample_8.40_rc3_xp_july16_br50518.rar

It is the only one that i have HA on everything, and CPU utilization 4-8%.

Try it if you have the time.....

Of course after the installation you must apply the registry tweaks...

Good luck everyone.

The rar package is damaged.

[ZygaDVB]

The rar package is damaged.
spelosi change .rar to .exe
So to anyone with,

WINDOWS XP and
2400 AGP

try this package,

cnc.download.colorful.cn/VGA/ATI/amd_sample_8.40_rc3_xp_july16_br50518.rar

It is the only one that i have HA on everything, and CPU utilization 4-8%.

Try it if you have the time.....

Of course after the installation you must apply the registry tweaks...

Good luck everyone.

HA not working for me:
WINDOWS XP
ATI HD 2400 AGP
BARTON 2600+
Cyberlink PDVD 7.3
ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11
test on hard disk file movies .ts .wmv
:(

[Gaizka]

So to anyone with,

WINDOWS XP and
2400 AGP

try this package,

cnc.download.colorful.cn/VGA/ATI/amd_sample_8.40_rc3_xp_july16_br50518.rar

It is the only one that i have HA on everything, and CPU utilization 4-8%.

Try it if you have the time.....

Of course after the installation you must apply the registry tweaks...

Good luck everyone.

Link is broken for me. I download it from

http://telecom.download.colorful.cn/VGA/ATI/amd_sample_8.40_rc3_xp_july16_br50518.rar

File size is 168Mb :eek:

I will try this next day

emilot I have read your posts on this forum... still no HA with hard disk file movies? like .ts .avi .mov ????

I don't have bluray nor hd dvd drive for original material testing.. i always work from my hard disk with movie trailes and video samples, problably that was my great mistake..

Mpeg2 accelerates ok for me even with 1080p 20mbit transfer rates that uses 40-50% of my modest Athlon XP 1900+ cpu. GPU is 70-80% at 550mhz on those files playback. Image Quality is better than with my NV 6600GT PCIe using pure video.

Thank you



Thank you

[emilot]

Guys sorry but i must to make it clear....

I test HA with, Powerdvd and BlueRay, HDDVD movies(not clips) from Hard Disk and with DVBViewer Pro with H264 DVB-S2 channels.

With H264 ts files its ok, BUT you must run them with the Cyberlink Powerdvd Codec to have HA.....

I dont know about wmv and sure no with mkv!!!(because lack of codecs)..

Thnx!!

[ZygaDVB]

Guys sorry but i must to make it clear....

I test HA with, Powerdvd and BlueRay, HDDVD movies(not clips) from Hard Disk and with DVBViewer Pro with H264 DVB-S2 channels.

With H264 ts files its ok, BUT you must run them with the Cyberlink Powerdvd Codec to have HA.....

I dont know about wmv and sure no with mkv!!!(because lack of codecs)..

Thnx!!

I test HA with Powerdvd - HD clips from Hard Disk and with ALTDVB (Powerdvd Codec) with H264 DVB-S channels.

With H264 ts files i run them with the Cyberlink Powerdvd Codec.

Not working for me - CPU utilization 100%.

Bad news for non SSE2 cpu users

It seems cyberlinks h264 decoder only allows DXVA if you have a SSE2 or higher CPU.

Now i have not had the chance to test any of the other DXVA decoders, has anyone tried nero or arcsoft on a non-SSE2 cpu?(athlonXP/PentiumIII or older cpu)

It is my problem maybe.

[emilot]

I test HA with Powerdvd - HD clips from Hard Disk and with ALTDVB (Powerdvd Codec) with H264 DVB-S channels.

With H264 ts files i run them with the Cyberlink Powerdvd Codec.

Not working for me - CPU utilization 100%.



What CPU you have emilot?


HT 3.20Ghz Prescot P4
Assume that you put the registry tweaks ah?

[ZygaDVB]

HT 3.20Ghz Prescot P4
Assume that you put the registry tweaks ah?

Yes, ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11.
SSE2 it is my problem maybe.

[sharangad]

spelosi change .rar to .exe


HA not working for me:
WINDOWS XP
ATI HD 2400 AGP
BARTON 2600+
Cyberlink PDVD 7.3
ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11
test on hard disk file movies .ts .wmv
:(

You won't get any acceleration with wmvs for two reasons.

1) Firstly WMP11 on XP only supports WMV Modes A and B. On Vists WMP11 supports Modes A, B and C (possibly D as well though I haven't seen this in action). The ATi Radeon HD cards support only mode D (the fully accelerated mode where the demuxed video is sent directly to the videocard ). PowerDVD cannot use hardware acceleration for WMVs for some reason and it'll usually play stuff back in the video overlay which should reduce the CPU requirements but it's still pure software playback.

WMP11 can use H/A but you need to enable it under Tools/Options/Performance?Advanced.

2) ATi don't expose the WMV9 Mode D accelerator capability. They list VC-1 Mode D ( VC-1 is WMV9 Advanced profile ) but not WMV Mode D. That was the case under both XP and Vista with my Radeon HD 2600 XT with Cats 7.7-7.11. I don't know if this is still the case.

Your best bet towards testing HD H/A is to download a HD 1080p Quicktime trailer and play it back with PowerDVD 7 Deluxe or Ultra ( as these support H.264 acceleration ). Try playing it back with Quicktime and compare the CPU utilisation with PowerDVD7.

The thing to note is that even without H/A PowerDVD7 is very efficient, as efficient as CoreAVC in software mode for quicktime trailers (with SSE2 support ) so I would verify in the information tab that "DXVA in use" is shown.

[EDIT] Oops! Sorry I missed the bit about your having tried H.264 DVB streams. Apologies.

You could try running DXDiag.EXE under Vista and XP and seeing what capabilities are being listed there.

What I got under XP was:

---------------
Display Devices
---------------

...

Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_A

I no longer have the Vista DXDiag file. It would be good to see what the Radeon HD series now claims to support.

You could actually use this: http://bluesky23.hp.infoseek.co.jp/dxvaChecker_ss.html

and check what the capabilites are. This should list all of them including H.264 and they're exactly the same interfaces on XP and Vista (i.e. same COM IIDs).

With my 8600 GTS under XP this is what I get:

http://sparrowhawk.no-ip.info/images/DXVA%20Capabilities%208600%20GTS%20XP.png

There is one thing to be aware of though with DXVA caps. nVidia used to lie about supporting WMV Modes A and B on the AGP 6600 GTs though it didn't actually support them.

[Gaizka]

My AMD Athlon XP 1900+ supports 3dnow and SSE but not SSE2, Has anybody confirmed relationship with SSE2 and DVXA capabilities??

This is de growing list of SSE2 CPUS extracted from wikipedia:

CPUs supporting SSE2

* AMD K8-based CPUs (Athlon 64, Sempron 64, Turion 64, etc)
* Intel NetBurst-based CPUs (Pentium 4, Xeon, Celeron, etc)
* Intel Pentium M and Celeron M
* Intel Celeron D tested with CPU-Z
* Intel Core-based CPUs (Core Duo, Core Solo, etc)
* Intel Core 2-based CPUs (Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, etc)
* Transmeta Efficeon
* Via C7

We have to try 2400-2600 agp card with those CPUs

Regards

[ZygaDVB]

...You could try running DXDiag.EXE under Vista and XP and seeing what capabilities are being listed there.

What I got under XP was...


I have DXDiag:
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_A

And DXVA Checker:

ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP
ModeMPEG2_IDCT: 720x480
BB0796AE-2ED4-468D-A182-38F2CEADECF8:
B1A56F6C-2E7F-432F-8F09-8DED43B3CEE4:
ModeH264_Unknown_Avivo:
30AF325C-3CDF-4539-9D95-0548DCB6CD25:
ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT:
0184C6D4-F80C-4299-ADA9-6A6087FB9D00:
ModeVC1_VLD: 720x480 / 1280x720 / 1920x1080
51911E1A-9FAD-424E-9C9A-D1D97E17F56B:
ModeWMV8_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720
ModeWMV9_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720

What it means?

Regards
Zyga

[arfster]

ModeMPEG2_IDCT: 720x480
ModeVC1_VLD: 720x480 / 1280x720 / 1920x1080
ModeWMV8_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720
ModeWMV9_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720

What it means?



1080p acceleration for VC1, 720p acceleration for WMV, SD acceleration for mpeg2, and none for h264.

The lack of mpeg2 HD acceleration is normal for a 2400 though, so you can probably get it back with the dxva_nohddecode=0 registry tweak (see my sig).

[emilot]

1080p acceleration for VC1, 720p acceleration for WMV, SD acceleration for mpeg2, and none for h264.

The lack of mpeg2 HD acceleration is normal for a 2400 though, so you can probably get it back with the dxva_nohddecode=0 registry tweak (see my sig).

Yes i have also Mpeg2 acceleration!!!

[ZygaDVB]

1080p acceleration for VC1, 720p acceleration for WMV, SD acceleration for mpeg2, and none for h264.

The lack of mpeg2 HD acceleration is normal for a 2400 though, so you can probably get it back with the dxva_nohddecode=0 registry tweak (see my sig).

I run ATI_HD2x00_Reg_Tweaks_0.11 but nothing changed :(

Thanks
Zyga

[sharangad]

I have DXDiag:
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_A

And DXVA Checker:

ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO AGP
ModeMPEG2_IDCT: 720x480
BB0796AE-2ED4-468D-A182-38F2CEADECF8:
B1A56F6C-2E7F-432F-8F09-8DED43B3CEE4:
ModeH264_Unknown_Avivo:
30AF325C-3CDF-4539-9D95-0548DCB6CD25:
ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT:
0184C6D4-F80C-4299-ADA9-6A6087FB9D00:
ModeVC1_VLD: 720x480 / 1280x720 / 1920x1080
51911E1A-9FAD-424E-9C9A-D1D97E17F56B:
ModeWMV8_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720
ModeWMV9_PostProc: 720x480 / 1280x720

What it means?

Regards
Zyga

You have H.264 full acceleration upto 1080p ( Mode D ), WMV9 Mode A (post-proc) upto 720p, VC1 in Mode D,VC-1 full bitstream decode ( Variable Length Decoder, Mode D ) and MPEG-2 Modes C & D ( iDCT for unencrypted and encrypted video ).

The acceleration modes are like this:

the higher the letter the more acceleration there is:
Mode A post-processing,
Mode B Motion Compensation
Mode C inverse discrete cosine transform
Mode D Variable Length Decoder ( full bitstream decode acceleration except for MPEG-2 where it means something else).

FGT is film grain technology, which allows film grain to be reintroduced on video which has had it removed.

The only thing you're missing is WMV acceleration as Mode A (Post-Proc) has been available in cards like the Radeon 9700/9800 and the Geforce FX. Some Geforce 6 cards had Mode A and B as did the Radeon X800/700/600. The Radeons supported it for WMV8 as well as WMV9.

According to that you should have full acceleration for everything except WMV.

[HectorD]

Hi !

I have an Pentium IV at 2'6 Ghz with AGP and I bought a Club3D HD2400 Pro AGP card. I've installed the Visiontek drivers for AGP and the last version of PowerDVD and I have hardware acceleration for HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs with CPU use max of 30% on Serenity (VC1) or Die Hard 4 (AVC) and perfect and smooth playback.

Trailers from HD-DVDs remuxed in mkv format played with MPC are accelerated too.

I use the PC mainly for HTPC and I don´t need more power to do other things. Because that, I don't want to waste more money in the PC apart from the ATI Card, and it was a birthday gift.

I only want to let my message of hope for people like me that they don't want to waste more money in their PCs to get only a fluid playback of HD-DVDs or Blu-Rays.

Good luck and a Happy New Year for all.

[mo0sic]

Just wondering which driver everyone is having the most luck with for the 2400 series?

[TurboTropic]

I just received my LG BD/HD-DVD drive today and I'm looking to purchase a 2400 or 2600 card purely for movies in HD - no gaming. Am I safe to go with a Visiontek 2600XT PCI-E 512Mb card? From searching it looks as though most of the issues are related to the AGP cards. Thanks for any advice.

PS - I'm on Vista

[jkleslie]

I just received my LG BD/HD-DVD drive today and I'm looking to purchase a 2400 or 2600 card purely for movies in HD - no gaming. Am I safe to go with a Visiontek 2600XT PCI-E 512Mb card? From searching it looks as though most of the issues are related to the AGP cards. Thanks for any advice.

PS - I'm on Vista

I use a 2600 Pro and have no issues with playback on my LG drive. I don't have what would be considered a super powerful system either (E6300, 2GB DDR2-667). I'm also on Vista.

[tetsuo55]

According to this site:

http://ati.amd.com/technology/Avivo/h264.html

Ati seems to recommend "Nero Showtime" for h264 decoding, i have read elsewhere that the decoder works outside in MediaPlayer Classic.

According to this link:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=95939

The nero showtime decoder is the only official h264 ati decoder.

A google search reveals the following site:

http://www.cyberlink.com/cinema/ati/h264_decoder/enu/index.jsp

this seems to be a special ati only h264 decoder


When reading up on the cyberlink site, it seems that cyberlink has been an ati partner from the start, ever since the first version of AVIVO was born cyberlink has always been providing the decoders, it seems only logical then that cyberlink would have the best decoder as they know the most of the AVIVO specs


----------------------------------------

Has anyone tried the following decoders on a non-SSE2 cpu running winxp?

-Arcsoft totalmedia extreme (unoffical support for ati avivo)
-Nero showtime(this is the only official h264 hardware decoder?)
-Windvd8 (unoffical support for ati avivo)
-Mainconcept/Elecard (a lot of versions do not seem to work but some do) (unoffical support for ati avivo)

[TurboTropic]

I use a 2600 Pro and have no issues with playback on my LG drive. I don't have what would be considered a super powerful system either (E6300, 2GB DDR2-667). I'm also on Vista.

Thanks for the response. I've actually changed my mind and I'll be getting the ATI-branded 2600 Pro too, mainly because the Crossfire connectors on the XT stick out too far and wouldn't fit in my case. Glad to hear your system works as it should.

[spelosi]

spelosi change .rar to .exe


HA not working for me:
WINDOWS XP
ATI HD 2400 AGP
BARTON 2600+
Cyberlink PDVD 7.3
ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11
test on hard disk file movies .ts .wmv
:(

Ok, here's my current setup:

Windows XP
ATI HD 2400 AGP
Barton running at 2.4 GHZ (faster than 3200+)
Cyberlinp PDVD 7.3
ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11
Those ATI drivers you asked someone to try.

I am getting no HA on 1080p .ts files.

I am also getting no HA on 1080p wmv files.

CPU is running at 100%.

All files were loaded off my HDD.

I got so tired of messing around with this stuff I just ordered an X2 4800+ and mobo/ram last night.

It seems to me that this HA is a bit of a scam. It must work under some very specific circumstances, but it sure isn't useful to the average end user. Which isn't very good because I don't think the people on AVS are the average end user. If it's no good to us, then who is it good for?

[Mr.M]

You could actually use this: http://bluesky23.hp.infoseek.co.jp/dxvaChecker_ss.html

and check what the capabilites are. This should list all of them including H.264 and they're exactly the same interfaces on XP and Vista (i.e. same COM IIDs).

Is there any particular reason that this program isn't identifying 720x576 as an accelerated resolution?

[ZygaDVB]

Ok, here's my current setup:

Windows XP
ATI HD 2400 AGP
Barton running at 2.4 GHZ (faster than 3200+)
Cyberlinp PDVD 7.3
ATI HD2x00 Registry Tweaks 0.11
Those ATI drivers you asked someone to try.

I am getting no HA on 1080p .ts files.

I am also getting no HA on 1080p wmv files.

CPU is running at 100%.

All files were loaded off my HDD.

I got so tired of messing around with this stuff I just ordered an X2 4800+ and mobo/ram last night.

It seems to me that this HA is a bit of a scam. It must work under some very specific circumstances, but it sure isn't useful to the average end user. Which isn't very good because I don't think the people on AVS are the average end user. If it's no good to us, then who is it good for?

You are right.

Thanks for confirmation problem.

Regards
Zyga

[mo0sic]

I've been reading this monster thread for a while. I'm having HDCP problems in Vista Media Center. I believe its related to the ATI 2400 Pro in this Dell XPS 420. I'm using my own DVI to HDMI dongle to connect to an HDMI cable that goes into my Sharp LCD.

Do you think my dongle is causing the issue? I've installed the latest catalyst drivers. Any other ideas?

[inzane]

My issue is this, If I bypass my HDMI switcher, I can get the card to output video via the HDMI, but if I boot up connected via the switcher, I get no output. using CCC 7.11. Is there a way to force video out the HDMI? I guess the switcher is not passing back some info to the card.

[karrih]

I've been reading this monster thread for a while. I'm having HDCP problems in Vista Media Center. I believe its related to the ATI 2400 Pro in this Dell XPS 420. I'm using my own DVI to HDMI dongle to connect to an HDMI cable that goes into my Sharp LCD.

Do you think my dongle is causing the issue? I've installed the latest catalyst drivers. Any other ideas?

In my case I can get HDCP content only via switch. If I try to use my projector directly, the HDCP handshake will fail. HDCP implementations are obviously suffering from compatibility issues between different devices.

[cganesh75]

I have the gigabyte 690G motherboard with vista 32.. yesterday i tried to connect the dvi out from the board to the hdmi in my samsung dlp using a generic dvi-hdmi cable. It worked great. i got audio also.. Later i plugged in a powercolor hd2400pro scs3 with the same dvi - hdmi cable to my tv. now i dont get audio through hdmi.. what else should i install? i know the hd2400pro has the hdmi audio. anybody done this before? if i need the dvi-hdmi adapter from ati then how the onboard one works? please help

[sarah99]

I have the gigabyte 690G motherboard with vista 32.. yesterday i tried to connect the dvi out from the board to the hdmi in my samsung dlp using a generic dvi-hdmi cable. It worked great. i got audio also.. Later i plugged in a powercolor hd2400pro scs3 with the same dvi - hdmi cable to my tv. now i dont get audio through hdmi.. what else should i install? i know the hd2400pro has the hdmi audio. anybody done this before? if i need the dvi-hdmi adapter from ati then how the onboard one works? please help

I believe that Ati deliberately disable their graphics card onboard sound chip. Their Ati dongle has a link between two of the normally unused DVI pins to tell it to turn on. What we need is for someone to cut an ATi dongle open and tell us all what the connection is.

I may be totally wrong!

[TurboTropic]

Picked up an ATI branded 2600 Pro today to finish off my HD HTPC. Prior to this I have been running the onboard video from my Biostar 690G mobo via the HDMI output. Before upgrading the video card I installed my LG purple laser drive yesterday and rented "Next" on HD-DVD. It played OK, even the action scenes were fine, but it took approx. 5 seconds for the frames to sync properly if I skipped chapters.

Now everything is running very smoothly with PDVD (averaging 35% CPU usage) except for one extra on the disc which is skipping and stuttering really badly which doesn't make much sense as it should be far less intensive than the movie. Layer Cake and Blade Runner Final Cut arrive next week on BD and HD-DVD respectively. Looking forward to trying them out.

System:

AMD Athlon X2 4200+
Biostar 690G mobo
2 Gb RAM
Vista Home Premium

[DereckVD]

Hi HD-fans,

About three weeks ago i've bought the Sapphire HD2600XT-AGP,( i use my htpc both for games and hd-movies) but got all kinds of trouble with the drivers, Catalyst 7.9 untill 7.12 won't work, they gives errors if i test Direct3D with DirectXDiag:
Testresultaten van Direct3D 7: Fout bij stap 8 (Bezig met maken van 3D-apparaat): HRESULT = 0x80004005 (Algemene fout)
Testresultaten van Direct3D 8: Fout bij stap 8 (Bezig met maken van 3D-apparaat): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (Foutcode)
Testresultaten van Direct3D 9: Fout bij stap 8 (Bezig met maken van 3D-apparaat): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (Foutcode)

Only driver 7.7 and 7.8 works if i intall it manualy and force ATI radeon hd2600xt without the agp suffix.
Driver 7.7 gave me better results then 7.8, but stil with 3d errors, including directx7 and wmv9 and BD,hdDVD execeleration won't work either:(
I even tried the driver hack (not the registerhack) on this page with Catalyst 7.12:
http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/#agp
But same errors with Direct3D-diag.
So now i used the driver hack with 7.7 but same result, 3d works but slow and with errors.
Can i enable the HDmovie execeleration for 7.7 with the registerhack?
What do you suggest?
1] Wait for a better driver from ATI?
2] Return the card and force my money back?

Thanks for replying,
Dereck

Some specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7VAXP with sound onboard
AMD athlon 2700+
2Gb ram
WinXP-SP2
Sapphire HD2600XT

[alfonxs]

Hi Dereck, I own a Sapphire 2600 XT AGP too. Try the AGP Drivers from the manufacturers, the newest should be available at http://www.visiontek.com/teksupport/drivers/drivers.html. Sapphire and Gecube also offers AGP Drivers.

No Problems here for me, DirectX working, HA working.

If it doesnt't help, the Problem could be your CPU, I guess it doesn't suppoer SSE2? Some wrote that Cyberlink needs a SSE2 supporting CPU....

[DereckVD]

Hi Dereck, I own a Sapphire 2600 XT AGP too. Try the AGP Drivers from the manufacturers, the newest should be available at http://www.visiontek.com/teksupport/drivers/drivers.html. Sapphire and Gecube also offers AGP Drivers.

No Problems here for me, DirectX working, HA working.

If it doesnt't help, the Problem could be your CPU, I guess it doesn't suppoer SSE2? Some wrote that Cyberlink needs a SSE2 supporting CPU....


I allready tried the Visiontek and Sapphire drivers, same problem, direct3d won't work in Dxdiagnose:(

What do you mean by SSE2 :confused:

[alfonxs]

Read here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12588123#post12588123

and here about the CPUs that support SSE2: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12607267#post12607267

But this could only be the dxva problem, it has nothing to do with directx.

Did you try to (re)install the actual directx version?

[Precacher]

Possible temporary fix for AGP-users with non-SSE2 cpu

Hi!
I've just read the posts about the potential SSE2-problem and did som research and may have found a possible solution (it works for me...).

I myself have an AMD 2500+ XP Barton (non SSE2) and a GeCube 2600 Pro AGP-card and have never got H.264 to work although mpeg2 and VC-1 acceleration works.

I found an interesting post on a forum about nvidias purevideo, and they where doing some testing on the PowerDVD SSE and SSE2 dll-files to see if the h264 acceleration was disabled on a SSE2 cpu when using a SSE dll.

So I thought I would do the same thing as they did. I backuped the 264dsse.dll and replaced the file with the 264dsse2.dll file (in PowerDVD\VideoFilter). So now I got a 264dsse.dll file which is the same file as the 264dsse2.dll.

After that I fired up PowerDVD and to my surprise I now got H.264 acceleration working! No more unticked Avivo-checkbox when loading a h264 clip!
I've tested a H264/AVC BD-movie and some quicktime trailers and they are now fully accelerated!

Edit:
To view the testing results, read here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12634093#post12634093

[tetsuo55]

Hi!
I've just read the posts about the potential SSE2-problem and did som research and may have found a possible solution (it works for me...).

I myself have an AMD 2500+ XP Barton (non SSE2) and a GeCube 2600 Pro AGP-card and have never got H.264 to work although mpeg2 and VC-1 acceleration works.

I found an interesting post on a forum about nvidias purevideo, and they where doing some testing on the PowerDVD SSE and SSE2 dll-files to see if the h264 acceleration was disabled on a SSE2 cpu when using a SSE dll.

So I thought I would do the same thing as they did. I backuped the 264dsse.dll and replaced the file with the 264dsse2.dll file (in PowerDVD\VideoFilter). So now I got a 264dsse.dll file which is the same file as the 264dsse2.dll.

After that I fired up PowerDVD and to my surprise I now got H.264 acceleration working! No more unticked Avivo-checkbox when loading a h264 clip!
I've tested a H264/AVC BD-movie and some quicktime trailers and they are now fully accelerated!

Edit:
I've done some more testing and this seems to break "software" decoding for the codec inside PowerDVD (because it has loaded a sse2.dll on non sse2 cpu). It also seems to totally break the codec outside of PowerDVD.

I will do some more testing...

So to be clear it works with hardware acceleration in powerdvd but not outside?

[Gaizka]

I have read many threads of nvidia users with same problem that we, no HA on non-SSE2 CPU systems. I think there is an PowerDvD limitation with non SSE2 Cpu using DVXA but i don't know there is software or Hardware limitations.

Extreacted from Wikipedia:

SSE2, introduced with the Pentium 4, is a major enhancement to SSE (which some programmers renamed "SSE1"). SSE2 adds new math instructions for double-precision (64-bit) floating point and also extends MMX instructions to operate on 128-bit XMM registers. SSE integer instructions introduced with later SSE extensions would still operate on 64-bit MMX registers because the new XMM registers require operating system support. SSE2 enables the programmer to perform SIMD math of virtually any type (from 8-bit integer to 64-bit float) entirely with the XMM vector-register file, without the need to touch the (legacy) MMX/FPU registers. Many programmers consider SSE2 to be "everything SSE should have been", as SSE2 offers an orthogonal set of instructions for dealing with common datatypes.

Regards

[Zagor]

This is what I am getting using the DXVA Checker. This is on a MSI 2600XT PCIE and Cat 7-11. Sure don't see much there. Can't quite figure out what this means. Anybody have any ideas?

[arfster]

This is what I am getting using the DXVA Checker. This is on a MSI 2600XT PCIE and Cat 7-11. Sure don't see much there. Can't quite figure out what this means. Anybody have any ideas?

On the second one, the 3Cblahdeblah is vector-adaptive deinterlacing. This only appears under NV12 as that's the colourspace hardware acceleration uses.

If you set auto deinterlacing, a few other modes appear. However, CCC is sometimes a bit stupid with auto, especially with HD h264, and selects bob when it should VA. It's a bit better behaved recently though, with the crisis hotfix drivers (7.11 and a half) and 7.12.

[Zagor]

On the second one, the 3Cblahdeblah is vector-adaptive deinterlacing. This only appears under NV12 as that's the colourspace hardware acceleration uses.

If you set auto deinterlacing, a few other modes appear. However, CCC is sometimes a bit stupid with auto, especially with HD h264, and selects bob when it should VA. It's a bit better behaved recently though, with the crisis hotfix drivers (7.11 and a half) and 7.12.

Thanks for the info. I hadn't applied the hotfix because I don't play games. This is my HTPC and I use strictly for that but I am having a lot of issues with de-interlacing and HA. I can't get HA when I play MKV files using MPC with cyberlink h264 decoder. If I use EVR I get a black screen if I use vmr, it plays but I get no HA. I did apply your tweaks but I haven't seen any improvements, I guess I'll just keep reading and tweaking.

[arfster]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't applied the hotfix because I don't play games.

It's not just for games, that's just the principle reason they use for releasing it. Any hotfix has several other bugfixes and features not related to that - for example the crysis drivers are the only ones to have denoise/detail sliders, not even 7.12 has that.

I can't get HA when I play MKV files using MPC with cyberlink h264 decoder. If I use EVR I get a black screen if I use vmr, it plays but I get no HA.

That's a standard problem, everyone has that (including NVidia users). If the encode was made with more than the Bluray/HDDVD standard h264 reference frames then it won't do acceleration - it happens with mkv 1080p since they almost always break this rule, as do most 720p encodes. At present there is no solution, and I'm not optimistic there ever will be, as Cyberlink have no real incentive to fix it.

You get playback in VMR9 because in Vista that doesn't support h264 hardware acceleration, so the problem never arises (EVR is compulsory for Vista h264 acceleration).

[Precacher]

So to be clear it works with hardware acceleration in powerdvd but not outside?

I've done some more testing and come up with some strange results.

By doing this I get the following:

In PowerDVD:
- H.264 files that the card can accelerate, it now accelerates fine. (quicktime trailers, BD-movies etc.)
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate (like most mkv-files), will result in a black screen. I have not tested with a mkv-file that was "encoded" for the ATI-cards so I can't tell if all mkv-files fails or not.

Outside PowerDVD:
(Here comes some strange results...)

In Media Player Classic when using the Cyberlink H.264 codec:
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate, like before, results in a black screen.
- H.264 files that the card can accelerated, does NOT get accelerated even when I tried different output options etc.
Edit:
- I get H.264 acceleration working when choosing VMR7 as output!

In DVBViewer:
- A terrestrial HD channel, H.264 19Mbit, gets fully accelerated. (Overlay output and Cyberlink codec.)
Edit:
- All H.264 files seems to work and gets accelerated, even mkv-files, although it seems I get the 20 fps-bug.

// Edit: The sentence below is not correct any more.
I tried the same settings in Media Player Classic as in the DVBViewer but I could not get any acceleration on H.264 files... maybe there something I missed.
// End

I haven't tested with another ATI-driver, I'm currently using a 8.40 driver, Windows XP and Cyberlink v.3516.

Edit:
So it seems like H.264 works both in PowerDVD and outside when swapping dll-files for us with a non-sse2 cpu.

[Zagor]

It's not just for games, that's just the principle reason they use for releasing it. Any hotfix has several other bugfixes and features not related to that - for example the crysis drivers are the only ones to have denoise/detail sliders, not even 7.12 has that.

I see, I hadn't realized, I guess I better install it. So should I leave the cat 7.11 and just install the hotfix or should I upgrade to 7.12 and then install it or does it take the place of either catalyst drivers. I also been reading about cat 7.7 were working the best. Which ones do you recommend.



That's a standard problem, everyone has that (including NVidia users). If the encode was made with more than the Bluray/HDDVD standard h264 reference frames then it won't do acceleration - it happens with mkv 1080p since they almost always break this rule, as do most 720p encodes. At present there is no solution, and I'm not optimistic there ever will be, as Cyberlink have no real incentive to fix it.

You get playback in VMR9 because in Vista that doesn't support h264 hardware acceleration, so the problem never arises (EVR is compulsory for Vista h264 acceleration).

I see, thanks for the explanation. Now I know why it wouldn't work.

[arfster]

I see, I hadn't realized, I guess I better install it. So should I leave the cat 7.11 and just install the hotfix or should I upgrade to 7.12 and then install it or does it take the place of either catalyst drivers. I also been reading about cat 7.7 were working the best. Which ones do you recommend.

I had some nasty problems getting 7.12 to work, that I'd never seen before - it needed a more exact voltage setting in the bios. Not sure that's typical though.

The crysis hotfix are probably the best drivers out there imo because of the extra sliders, and the fixes compared to 7.11. By the way, it's not a patch as such, it's a full driver package in its own right.

[topcaser]

The crysis hotfix are probably the best drivers out there imo because of the extra sliders, and the fixes compared to 7.11.

This is a very odd software development that the hotfix drivers have these sliders and the other one not. Though they have removed this functions or made it unvisible.

Nevertheless, this is a very odd development flow. Normally, all source files are under version control. Functions which are implemented in the source code, are typically not removed. IMO these sliders are still there. Are there any new NAs in the registry of the hotfix drivers?

@Arfster: How did you modded this voltage? I asked this already some posts before. Propably you have not read this...

[karrih]

This is a very odd software development that the hotfix drivers have these sliders and the other one not. Though they have removed this functions or made it unvisible.


Actually, what often happens in software development is that there are branches with different functionalities. Like for example branch for some important customer. Eventually the branches are merged if all goes well.

I have been running 7.12 for a few days now, without VGA BIOS upgrades, and it seems to be the best so far. I'm still using TrDenoise and DXVA_DETAILENHANCE reg tweaks. It does seem to go in judder mode sometimes and occasionally hang completely, but I don't know what part of this belongs to Cyberlink decoders. Restarting my viewing app usually helps, though.

[originalsnuffy]

There seems to be a suggestion that the bios should be updated...I have a Powercolor card...and there are not bios updates on their site or the related TUL site that I can find.

I can find bios updates from other vendors for the 2400 Pro. I assume I am asking for trouble if I use those updates. Any opinions?

[D53]

I'm looking at purchasing a Sony XBR4 and a new home computer. I've heard of compatability problems beteween the XBR4 and nVidia cards. Does anyone know if an XBR4 is compatible with an 256 mb Radeon ATI HD 2600XT card?

The Dell website notes that it has dual DVI outs and also supports HDMI. Since I haven't seen one of these cards, I can't tell exactly what this means. I wonder if it has both an HDMI and a DVI port, with some sort of splitter used to support two DVI devices....

[ToughRowToHoe]

This is working EXACTLY like I want it to. If anyone is looking for the magic Realtek driver that enables the HDMI sound chip on this card, it is here:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#High%20Definition%20Audio%20Codecs

Note, this is the last driver in the table at the bottom entitled ATI HDMI Audio Device. It's a real shame that ATI couldn't do us the courtesy of posting this driver on their site...

I've added a mention to the sound faq.

[ToughRowToHoe]

if there's any moderators around, could you update the name of this thread to start with 'UPDATED FIRST POST:'

I'm slowly trying to piece together some new info for the first post to turn it into a min-faq, suggestions are welcomed.

p.

protovision, thanks.

Edit: Just FYI, there are two links to the same audio faq post. Feel free to use all of that post directly if you'd rather. I'll keep updating it for the time being if you prefer to leave it. No worries either way.

[tetsuo55]

I've done some more testing and come up with some strange results.

By doing this I get the following:

In PowerDVD:
- H.264 files that the card can accelerate, it now accelerates fine. (quicktime trailers, BD-movies etc.)
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate (like most mkv-files), will result in a black screen. I have not tested with a mkv-file that was "encoded" for the ATI-cards so I can't tell if all mkv-files fails or not.

Outside PowerDVD:
(Here comes some strange results...)

In Media Player Classic when using the Cyberlink H.264 codec:
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate, like before, results in a black screen.
- H.264 files that the card can accelerated, does NOT get accelerated even when I tried different output options etc.

In DVBViewer:
- A terrestrial HD channel, H.264 19Mbit, gets fully accelerated. (Overlay output and Cyberlink codec.)
Edit:
- All H.264 files seems to work and gets accelerated, even mkv-files, although it seems I get the 20 fps-bug.

I tried the same settings in Media Player Classic as in the DVBViewer but I could not get any acceleration on H.264 files... maybe there something I missed.

I haven't tested with another ATI-driver, I'm currently using a 8.40 driver, Windows XP and Cyberlink v.3516.

Edit:
So it seems like H.264 works both in PowerDVD and outside when swapping dll-files for us with a non-sse2 cpu.

So you're conclusion is "everything works perfectly when using DVBViewer after the dll swap trick"??

The 20fps bug can probably be fixed using the PS3 fix method, however i need to have acceleration working before i can confirm that.

[tomten]

I've done some more testing and come up with some strange results.

By doing this I get the following:

In PowerDVD:
- H.264 files that the card can accelerate, it now accelerates fine. (quicktime trailers, BD-movies etc.)
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate (like most mkv-files), will result in a black screen. I have not tested with a mkv-file that was "encoded" for the ATI-cards so I can't tell if all mkv-files fails or not.

Outside PowerDVD:
(Here comes some strange results...)

In Media Player Classic when using the Cyberlink H.264 codec:
- H.264 files that the card can not accelerate, like before, results in a black screen.
- H.264 files that the card can accelerated, does NOT get accelerated even when I tried different output options etc.

In DVBViewer:
- A terrestrial HD channel, H.264 19Mbit, gets fully accelerated. (Overlay output and Cyberlink codec.)
Edit:
- All H.264 files seems to work and gets accelerated, even mkv-files, although it seems I get the 20 fps-bug.

I tried the same settings in Media Player Classic as in the DVBViewer but I could not get any acceleration on H.264 files... maybe there something I missed.

I haven't tested with another ATI-driver, I'm currently using a 8.40 driver, Windows XP and Cyberlink v.3516.

Edit:
So it seems like H.264 works both in PowerDVD and outside when swapping dll-files for us with a non-sse2 cpu.

Truly outstanding work! Since I got two non-sse2 machines I thought I was completely out of luck, but apparently there is still some hope! My non-sse2 boxes consists of an Athlon XP 2000+ and an Athlon XP 2800+. I haven't got the cards yet, but think I'm good to go after your confirmation. Once again, very good work.

[ToughRowToHoe]

I believe that Ati deliberately disable their graphics card onboard sound chip. Their Ati dongle has a link between two of the normally unused DVI pins to tell it to turn on. What we need is for someone to cut an ATi dongle open and tell us all what the connection is.

I may be totally wrong!

This would explain why some people have been able to get audio over standard DVI to HDMI cables and adapters.

[leonardus]

Thx. This is the best tweak ever.After replacing those dlls I play with Cyberlink PDVD 7.3 SOME mkv 720p files nice on my slow PC ( Sempron 2200).With CoreAVC were some problems on files with video-bitrate greater than 6000, but with this tweak CPU is on 30-40%.
Very good work done by you.

[Valnar]

I'm still fighting my ATI HD2600Pro AGP working correctly in my old P4 Northwood machine, so I'd test this myself if I could, but I can't trust my own results.

So for those "in the know", can you provide your x264 CLI parameters that you use to compress video into MKV containers that work with PowerDVD HA?

I've read that there is a limit on b-frames, adaptive b-frames, and mixed-ref (dunno why on that one). What is the highest you can go and still have it work?

Robert

[phoodieman]

I have been trying to set up my big screen from my pc with a HD 2400 Pro series video card. I have two results. The Catalyst software runs but won't find the TV or I have no monitor at all. I have looked at the Bios and have set the video setting to PCI E (which is what I have on the motherboard). Nothing seems to get this card to work. I have on board video and uninstalled the driver before booting down. What will make this board work?

Ph00dieman

[Precacher]

So you're conclusion is "everything works perfectly when using DVBViewer after the dll swap trick"??

The 20fps bug can probably be fixed using the PS3 fix method, however i need to have acceleration working before i can confirm that.

Yes it works perfectly both in PowerDVD and DVBViewer. I've also got H.264 acceleration working in Media Player Classic now after I choosed VMR7 as output (VMR9 seems to make QT-trailers stutter for me).

I got a hold of an "ATI-friendly" mkv-file and it accelerates fine in PowerDVD, DVBViewer, Media Player Classic and WMP.

"Non ATI-friendly" mkv files produce a black screen in PowerDVD, MPC and WMP. In DVBViewer I get the 20 fps bug instead, which seems a little odd to me.

So my conclusion is that this dll-swap seems to put us non-sse2 agp-users at the same level as the rest of the users...

[mo0sic]

In my case I can get HDCP content only via switch. If I try to use my projector directly, the HDCP handshake will fail. HDCP implementations are obviously suffering from compatibility issues between different devices.


Well, I purchased an 8600GT and have no HDCP problems. The Asus 2400 Pro either isn't HDCP capable or there is an issue with the drivers.

[djos]

Btw, for those folks running PCIe versions, the 7.12 drivers seem to work just fine however the "red-shift" problem still occurs unless 3:2 pull-down is disabled! :(

[ExDeus]

So for those "in the know", can you provide your x264 CLI parameters that you use to compress video into MKV containers that work with PowerDVD HA?

I've read that there is a limit on b-frames, adaptive b-frames, and mixed-ref (dunno why on that one). What is the highest you can go and still have it work?

Robert
Well, I know you've been following my posts (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1081891#post1081891) at Doom9 (I'm UsedUser), but for those that haven't been, it appears that DXVA for AVC is related to a file's compliance with High Profile, Level 4.1. Which, as we discussed here previously, essentially comes down to num_ref_frames < 5 for 1080p or num_ref_frames < 10 for 720p.

In terms of the encoder settings for the best quality, I think you want to give up as few reference frames as possible, while still retaining b-frames. Using b-frame pyramids, at the cost of 2 reference frames, isn't worth it, IMHO.

My recommendations, for DXVA and compliance with other hardware (i.e., the PS3):

1080p or 720p:
Start with the PS3 profile and simply disable B-pyramids. Set your bitrate wherever you want it (default is 1000kbps, which I'm assuming is the max rate for PS3, but doesn't necessarily apply for quality encodes for other purposes).

As a reference point, the Ateme encoder in Nero Digital uses High@L3.1 and a max of 3 ref frames for 720p.

PS3 Profile, no B-pyramids:

--level 4.1 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --bframes 3 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --vbv-maxrate 25000 --me umh --merange 12

[Valnar]

Well, I know you've been following my posts (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1081891#post1081891) at Doom9 (I'm UsedUser)

Yep, I have. Glad you got it all worked out! I can start encoding now...

Robert

[furfoot]

PreCacher would you mind testing the .dll swap with PowerDVD 7.2 (h264 decoder version 1.99.0.1405). This apparantly fixes the 20fps bug. If this all works then I am definitely getting the HD2600 for my AMD 2000+.

[arfster]

Well, I know you've been following my posts (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1081891#post1081891) at Doom9 (I'm UsedUser), but for those that haven't been, it appears that DXVA for AVC is related to a file's compliance with High Profile, Level 4.1. Which, as we discussed here previously, essentially comes down to num_ref_frames < 5 for 1080p or num_ref_frames < 10 for 720p.



Thanks for the summary - I'm not up to date with encoding these days so it helps.

One little thing: From what I can recall for compliance with 4.1 then numrefframes * framesize +50% must not exceed 12megs. Thus for a 1920*1080 frame, 4 numref, for 720p 9. However, what about encodes in wider aspect ratios where the black bars aren't encoded? (ie 1080p at 2.35 aspect means 1920*827, which would allow 5 numref within the 12meg).

[karrih]

Well, I purchased an 8600GT and have no HDCP problems. The Asus 2400 Pro either isn't HDCP capable or there is an issue with the drivers.

I would say that most likely there is an issue with my projector

[ExDeus]

Thanks for the summary - I'm not up to date with encoding these days so it helps.

One little thing: From what I can recall for compliance with 4.1 then numrefframes * framesize +50% must not exceed 12megs. Thus for a 1920*1080 frame, 4 numref, for 720p 9. However, what about encodes in wider aspect ratios where the black bars aren't encoded? (ie 1080p at 2.35 aspect means 1920*827, which would allow 5 numref within the 12meg).
I'm currently encoding a clip to test it out, but I'm using 864, as it should be the max mod16 value that would allow num_ref_frames = 5.

1920*1088*4*1.5 = 12,533,760 (12 MB)

12,533,760/(1920*5*1.5) = 870.4

870.4/16 = 54.4

54*16 = 864

So if your hypothesis holds, 5 ref frames should be allowed up to 870.4 lines of resolution.

Unfortunately, my HTPC with the HD2600 went kaput last night, with the smell of something burning. So, not sure when I'll be up and running again.

[delpis]

hope i'll get some help. i'm having a hard time deciding between the 2600xt, 8600gt, and 8600gts. i will be watching 35% 720p/1080i/1080p, 50% DVD, 15% avi files. i would like to know the best overall card for image quality, upconversion, and performance (no stuttering/choppiness). i will never game. my budget is $100, but i could go to $125. i don't know all the best sites, but the following are the 2 best articles i could find.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047&p=1

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/26/avivo_hd_vs_purevideo/index.html

what makes it confusing is that the more recent article doesn't test the 8600gt (i have no idea if it performs the same as the gts) and both recommend a different card for a non-gamer. btw here are some of my specs:

sony KD30XS955
q6600
2gb ram
vista

[mav0100]

I wanted to add an update on my efforts to get DXVA working on my machine.

I've reverted from Vista Ultimate back to XP MCE 2005 to see if that helps.

The results so far:

VC-1: IMAX Blue Planet Blu-ray - approx 10-15% CPU usage when playing. However it STILL stutters.

AVC: Transformers HD-DVD - 100% CPU usage during playback. This also stutters, however, not nearly as badly as the IMAX Blu-ray, and is almost watchable.

In both cases, PowerDVD shows that DXVA is in use.

Oddly, the DXVA Checker utility appears to show that DXVA is enabled for VC-1, but not AVC, so I find it odd that PowerDVD shows it being in use for AVC.

Still using the Cat 7.7 drivers on my Visiontek HD-2400 Pro AGP and ExDeus' reg edits (thanks for those by the way!)

I see no acceleration at all with WMV-HD.

I'm still thinking that once the drivers are corrected, those of us that have AGP flavor cards will have no issues with watching HD on these "older machines", given the 10% CPU usage on the VC-1 content I've used to test. Given that the average bitrates on both the VC-1 IMAX disk and the AVC Transformers disk appeared to be about the same, I would guess that I should see an equal drop in CPU usage once the drivers are fixed on AVC content.

I also noticed that the video looped for the menu on the Transformers disk is VC-1, not AVC, and I see a similar 10-15% CPU usage when it is played.

Let's hope these AGP issues are resolved soon.

[rdunnill]

I tried a Powercolor 2600XT under Vista x64, and now I get a black screen with PowerDVD Ultra OEM.

With MCE 2005, no desktop appears and the screen stays blank. This is the second ATI card I've tried, with even worse results than the first.

[GsHTPC]

Well I'm another one of the suckers that didnt read the fourms and went out looking for a cheap solution for getting HD on my PC. My 6600GT AGP card isn't compliant and I didn't want to spend a little forunte on upgrading my whole system for a PCI-e 8 series geforce card. So I found the VisionTek 2600pro AGP video card at BestBuy onsale for $99 same as blackfriday. So I then spend the next 2 hours trying to install this seamingly POS videocard when I came accross a post on this very thread which simply suggested I install the lattest drivers from the manufactures website. http://www.visiontek.com/teksupport/...s/drivers.html gees who would have thought lol.

So anyway I after trying the drivers on the CD did not work. I went to ATI's website and downloaded the lattest 7.12 refrence drivers these did not work either. I then found the link that pointed me to Visiontek's drivers and installed those and wala works like a champ. My main reason for getting this card is to watch HD content using AGP. So what I did is hooked up my xbox 360 HD DVD to my PC which is connected to a Sharp x10-x VGA 1280x1024 projector through the DVI-to-VGA converter and powered up Cyberlink's Power DVD with HD support and wala. I've never see such a superb picture. The quality is just amazing. So if your like me and are having ton's of issues installing the drivers just out of the box with the visiontek 2600pro just download the drivers from here:
http://www.visiontek.com/teksupport/...s/drivers.html
and you will be all set.

The picture quality is so good in HD on my projector I have to admit it was worth every penny. A great investment in my book with out having to break the bank or upgrade my whole system. I'm running an Intel 3ghz OC to 3.2 with 1GIG DDR memory on Windows MCE 2005, nothing fancy but HD picture quality is Outstanding through my XBOX HD DVD hooked up to my PC.

[Roussi]

I was finally able to confirm that my vt 2400 “xt” AGP card is actually capable of full AVC decode on an old non-sse2 system (Barton@2.1 GHz on a VIA KM400A).

The ripped movie file from Pirates – Black Pearl plays smoothly in Graphedit, in full screen Theater mode with up to 57% CPU uniform (relatively) utilization.

I had what appeared to be some HW acceleration through every step (see below; but never in 1080i), however it was never enough for sub-100% cpu and stutter-free playback. I almost gave up, especially after the nvidia agp/sse2 hwa fiasco of 1-2 years ago. However after replacing 264dsse.dll with the sse2 version, it just worked, with the filters that Graphedit picked up.

System:
Ideq 210V, Athlon XP 2800+, 2GB RAM, LG GGC-H20L through SATA-IDE bridge, 500 GB in SATA RAID 0
Visiontek B2 HD2400 XT AGP (700 MHz/DDR2@400MHz) through RGB and DVI-HDMI to
Vizio P50HDM (native 1366x768) with dual RGB 1024x768 and HDMI 1080i.

WinXP; PDVD 2ch (oem) 3319; (ArcSoft DT2 jp trial crashes; no time for a clean install)
Visiontek Cat 8.43; replaced Cat drivers-only with 7.12; applied all 2400 reg edits; replaced ati3duag.dll only with version 6.14.10.517 (cat 7.8(?)/8.40 beta); replaced 264dsse.dll with 264dsse2.dll.

Playback in Graphedit with MainConcept MPEG Demultiplexer v1.0.47 b60321 (appears to be part of my Hauppauge USB tuner stick software), Cyberlink h264/AVC decoder; DD5.1 audio through SPDIF by Cyberlink Audio Decoder.

I’ll be waiting for ArcSoft now, in the meantime devouring the HD/BD in MPC thread.

Many thanks to all who contributed the tweaks. I hope this is of some help and reassuarance to those who like me cannot justify the upgrade for the only purpose of HD luxury.

Roussi

[saintsaints]

I have a 34 inch crt and my 2600xt refresh rate is 60hz, will it be any better if I change it to 72hz for hd movies?

[Nyria]

I have a 34 inch crt and my 2600xt refresh rate is 60hz, will it be any better if I change it to 72hz for hd movies?

As far as i understand this actually depends on the video file you're playing.

For Pal for example its better to use 50hz. (and for ntsc 60hz i think.)

Setting the number of hz to high can cause your video to stutter.
Setting the number to low can cause video and audio syncing problems in some playback programs (mediaportall for example).

[tetsuo55]

This is part one of my hardware acceleration for media files guide.

This first part will explain:
How to get Hardware acceration (3D, Dxva 1 and 2 and HW deinterlacing) working on any ati radeon card except the Radeon 7k, 8k, 9k-9250 Series.

first install the driver, the omega drivers have been preconfigured to work on every card, they also have built in fixes for agp users, so these are the only drivers i can recommend:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati_winxp.php

currently these are the 7.12 drivers, ATI has bene focusing most of its attention at fixing AVIVO issues, the crysis hotfix drivers which are a few days newer have even more fixes (like better VC1 decoding) i think both the 8.1 and the 8.2 drivers will gives a lot more enhancements on the AVIVO area. Omega drivers will be updated accordingly.

After you finish installing the drivers AGP users will need to perform the following step:(PCI-E users can skip this part)

Reboot into safe mode, and then copy
C:\Program Files\Radeon Omega Drivers\v4.8.442\2KXP_INF\AGP\ati3duag.dll
TO
C:\WINDOWS\system32\

And overwrite the file, doing this fixes directX/

-------------------------

At this point the system is fully Hardware accelerated.

The next step is choosing a hardware accelerated player, the answer is pretty simple, Cyberlink has been working together with ATI ever since they invented AVIVO, so its obvious that PowerDVD will get the most out of an ATI card (DXVA is limited so some hardware support has to be manually added, not all programs have these manual addons)

If you have a CPU supporting SSE2 all you will need to do is install the latest version of powerdvd, however if you have a SSE or older computer you will have to do the following trick:

For SSE computers:

In the folder:
C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\VideoFilter
Rename 264dsse.dll to 264dsse.dll.old
Rename 264dsse2.dll to 264dsse.dll

For MMX computers(untested)

In the folder:
C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\VideoFilter
Rename 264dmmx.dll to 264dmmx.dll.old
Rename 264dsse2.dll to 264dmmx.dll




-------------------------

At this point everyone should have hardware acceleration within the PowerDVD program, no matter what your videocard, bus type or processor.

NOTE: Not all cards have the same level of hardware acceleration, please check your manual to see what you card can do.

For HD2400/2600 users all AVIVIO HD functions can be enabled using this tool: http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/

The Next part of the guide will be Accelerating x264 files, in bith 720p and 1080p. That guide will also (if needed/possible) include information on how to fix existing files to prevent the black screen and 20fps bugs.

[mav0100]

Excellent guide. Hopefully this can be added to the info on the first page of the thread to help those who might have just gotten one of these cards and is still wondering why DXVA doesn't work... Saving them our headaches!

Also, looking forward to the x264 stuff for myself, since I haven't been able to do anythng with that yet.

[GsHTPC]

Question what's the easiest way to determine if HA is actually working? Would I just open up task manager and see if CPU is @100% during playback? Or is there some utility I can download. I was watching King Kong last night and it played fine the parts that I watched. What should I be looking for? I want to apply the tweaks if I need them. I'm just not in the habit of fixing something that isnt broken. Should I run DirectX test to verify If Im having a problem with Directx? Sorry for the noob questions. I want to make sure I set this up right. I have an AGP VT ATI HD2600Pro 512ram

Will the omega drivers work with MS MCE2005? Or just XP? I'm running MCE2005



At this point everyone should have hardware acceleration within the PowerDVD program, no matter what your videocard, bus type or processor.

NOTE: Not all cards have the same level of hardware acceleration, please check your manual to see what you card can do.

The Next part of the guide will be Accelerating x264 files, in bith 720p and 1080p. That guide will also (if needed/possible) include information on how to fix existing files to prevent the black screen and 20fps bugs.

[Ssseth]

Tetsuo55, that's meant as a joke, right? If you have a CPU that's old enough not to use SSE2 you will have a very nice slide show of any HD content worthy of being called HD anyway! Stuff you can watch will probably be of lesser image quality than regular DVD, and what's the point then?

I'm serious

HD is almost watchable on my system, it just needs a little help from the videocard

Content up to 720p plays flawlessly but anything higher starts to drop frames and starts to stutter, VC1 and mpeg2 are watchable but h264 is a stutterfest

Thats why i bought the ati card, so it could fill in the gaps, with the ati's hardware accelaration i should have 0 framedrops on 1080p with about 40-60% cpu usuage

Incredible! I have a bunch of old XP2600-XP2800 CPU's and motherboards laying around the house. Maybe I should try to sell them as "HD capable"? ;)

Edit: No, wait! I'll do what flat TV manufacturers has gotten away with for a couple of years: "HD Ready"!

Yeah,

starting from the athlonXP 2500+ any hdready content is playable without videocard assistance

So 720P MKV video is fully playable, MPEG2 is in my case playable in 1080p, 1080i can be done, but with a quick deinterlacing algorythm that will cause jaggies

Thats great tetsuo55! If you can play 720p and all you have to do is add a inexpensive video card for 1080p then thats great news for some people that have old equipment. Since I use an OLD outdated Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gig mem and 2600 512 Pro as my HTPC, I would love to dig out my older AMD Athlon XP 2200+ processor and MB and use that for my HTPC. Now were talking GREEN. It's a shame when some people think you need the latest hardware to run HD content and blast you when you can get away with running older technology. My hats off to those that do.:) PS: I use my video card for the HDMI interface on the Sony KDF-46E2000 via the ATI adapter and Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Keyboard and Mouse 7000. Nice neat package.

This may be a little late in the thread, but I also wanted to confirm that I have no issues playing MKV 720p files on an older (non SSE2) system without using any GPU hardware acceleration features.

GFX card is a 7800 GS, but I doubt it's helping out at all. ;)
CPU is a Athlon XP 2700+ (333 MHz FSB).
System has 1.5 GB of RAM.
Running Windows XP Pro SP2.

I'm playing them with media player classic or VLC. 1080p plays, but there is noticeable stutter and it's not watchable. CPU usage for the 720p files hovers anywhere between 50-80%.

Just thought I'd pitch in some input into this massive thread. I too was looking for a cheap AGP upgrade to playback 1080p (mostly hoping for MKV files) on my old HTPC. Looks like I'll stick with my 720p for now and wait for this hardware acceleration stuff to get worked out.

Excellent work and feedback by so many people, I just wanted to say thanks for all the time you've all spent on this!

[MikeSM]

This is part one of my hardware acceleration for media files guide.

This first part will explain:
How to get Hardware acceration (3D, Dxva 1 and 2 and HW deinterlacing) working on any ati radeon card except the Radeon 7k, 8k, 9k-9250 Series.

first install the driver, the omega drivers have been preconfigured to work on every card, they also have built in fixes for agp users, so these are the only drivers i can recommend:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati_winxp.php

currently these are the 7.12 drivers, ATI has bene focusing most of its attention at fixing AVIVO issues, the crysis hotfix drivers which are a few days newer have even more fixes (like better VC1 decoding) i think both the 8.1 and the 8.2 drivers will gives a lot more enhancements on the AVIVO area. Omega drivers will be updated accordingly.

After you finish installing the drivers AGP users will need to perform the following step:(PCI-E users can skip this part)

Reboot into safe mode, and then copy
C:\Program Files\Radeon Omega Drivers\v4.8.442\2KXP_INF\AGP\ati3duag.dll
TO
C:\WINDOWS\system32\

And overwrite the file, doing this fixes directX/

-------------------------

At this point the system is fully Hardware accelerated.

The next step is choosing a hardware accelerated player, the answer is pretty simple, Cyberlink has been working together with ATI ever since they invented AVIVO, so its obvious that PowerDVD will get the most out of an ATI card (DXVA is limited so some hardware support has to be manually added, not all programs have these manual addons)

If you have a CPU supporting SSE2 all you will need to do is install the latest version of powerdvd, however if you have a SSE or older computer you will have to do the following trick:

For SSE computers:

In the folder:
C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\VideoFilter
Rename 264dss.dll to 264dss.dll.old
Rename 264dss2.dll to 264dss.dll

For MMX computers(untested)

In the folder:
C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\VideoFilter
Rename 264dmmx.dll to 264dmmx.dll.old
Rename 264dss2.dll to 264dmmx.dll




-------------------------

At this point everyone should have hardware acceleration within the PowerDVD program, no matter what your videocard, bus type or processor.

NOTE: Not all cards have the same level of hardware acceleration, please check your manual to see what you card can do.

The Next part of the guide will be Accelerating x264 files, in bith 720p and 1080p. That guide will also (if needed/possible) include information on how to fix existing files to prevent the black screen and 20fps bugs.

I only care about MPEG2 acceleration. Does this proivide flawless MPEG2 playback? Should I still run exduex' registry tweaks for color and denoise etc...?

[bastardguy23]

This is part one of my hardware acceleration for media files guide.



Thanks for the guide. I just went through all the steps but I still seem to be getting no playback (black screen) using the cyberlink avc decoder in media player classic when I tried a supposedly properly encoded h.264 1080p file.

I've got a visiontek radeon 2400 pro, SSE cpu (xp 2400) on an AGP system so I pretty much had to do all the mods. It works fine for 720p mkv files using coreavc.

I also installed the latest power dvd player (7.3.3516). I wasn't able to find the 264dss2.dll file. It did have 264dsse2.dll (along with 264dsse2.dll.0 ... 264dsse2.dll.3), so I renamed it to 264dsse.dll.

Still waiting for the h.264 playback guide to confirm if I can get HWA on my system.

[bastardguy23]

Thanks for the guide. I just went through all the steps but I still seem to be getting no playback (black screen) using the cyberlink avc decoder in media player classic when I tried a supposedly properly encoded h.264 1080p file.

I've got a visiontek radeon 2400 pro, SSE cpu (xp 2400) on an AGP system so I pretty much had to do all the mods. It works fine for 720p mkv files using coreavc.

I also installed the latest power dvd player (7.3.3516). I wasn't able to find the 264dss2.dll file. It did have 264dsse2.dll (along with 264dsse2.dll.0 ... 264dsse2.dll.3), so I renamed it to 264dsse.dll.

Still waiting for the h.264 playback guide to confirm if I can get HWA on my system.

Just a quick update... the step to copy 264sse2.dll to 264sse.dll is the one causing the black screen for me. Fixing that however brings it back to the previous state where playback using the cyberlink decoder stutters a bit compared to coreavc for 720p video.

[mijoeldotor]

The card has 2 components important here:

UVD: does h264 and VC1 acceleration, so the CPU is doing pretty much nothing

Shaders: do mpeg2 acceleration (not full, roughly halfs CPU usage), and deinterlacing, scaling, denoising, sharpening, etc.

thank, you arfster.
I know you people are on the "state of the art" issues, but i´m a beginer and need your expertise in "htpc newbies" questions:
I decided to go for a AMD 4800+ dualcore + Sapphire 2600 pro PCIe 256Mb and XP. I will have the pc tomorrow. I have a DLP SP7210 720p projector.
I will play internet 720p /1080p files until I buy a xBox hd dvd.
I know I need a player, a decoder and may be a filter for SD DVD. It came to my mind what is using a friend of mine having a Nvidia 7600GT:Zoomplayer, Purevideo, FFdshow.
What is the best suite for this gpu? I mean, what player, decoder, filter do I need to install in order to get the best of my gpu and do what you mention on my first question.
I´ve read PDVD ultra is the only for the HW aceleration, sth that is made for and Ati card. what is the key of HW aceleration? Better PQ or less CPU usage only? Do I need HW aceleration??
Nvidia purevideo is a software decoder, and the Avivo..is Hardware decoder? do I get similar output?
Do I need to install the registry tweak http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/
and the most important problems I´ve read on this thead will be solved? Or shold I install tetsuo55 driver? http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati_winxp.php
Or sth else?
thanks

[GsHTPC]

Sorry for the newbie question but how do you tell if HWA is working. I'm running a VT ATI AGP 2600Pro Is there an easy way to tell if HWA is working? I see about 70-80CPU utilization while playing KingKong in HD through PowerDVD Ultra

[zeisha]

I purchased a Radeon 2400 HD and installed it in my Vista machine. I purchased a generic HDMI cable from Target. I am using a Mitsubishi 65" rear projection tv with 1080p capability as my monitor.

After installing and connecting everything, the picture came in fine and looked quite good. Some of the more advanced desktop themes were unavailable because I was still using the default Vista display adapter. After installing the Radeon adapter, or Catalyst software, I could no longer pick up a signal past the post messages when booting.

If I disable the Radeon adapter through the device manager, or boot to safe mode, the picture is again restored. If I reenable it, the picture is lost. For testing purposes I connected a 17" CRT monitor (vga connection) along with my HDTV and I have no problems getting a signal to the CRT monitor with the Radeon adapter enabled, although it still will not display on my HDTV.

[tetsuo55]

Question what's the easiest way to determine if HA is actually working? Would I just open up task manager and see if CPU is @100% during playback? Or is there some utility I can download. I was watching King Kong last night and it played fine the parts that I watched. What should I be looking for? I want to apply the tweaks if I need them. I'm just not in the habit of fixing something that isnt broken. Should I run DirectX test to verify If Im having a problem with Directx? Sorry for the noob questions. I want to make sure I set this up right. I have an AGP VT ATI HD2600Pro 512ram

Will the omega drivers work with MS MCE2005? Or just XP? I'm running MCE2005

I recommend the tweaks to every 2400/2600 user, i added them to the guide, these drivers wil work on everythig except vista and 64bit

I only care about MPEG2 acceleration. Does this proivide flawless MPEG2 playback? Should I still run exduex' registry tweaks for color and denoise etc...?

the guide works for everything, so also mpeg2, you probably will need the exdeus patches, i added them to the guide, note however that i only testes SD mpeg2(DVD) myself, its fully accelerated

Thanks for the guide. I just went through all the steps but I still seem to be getting no playback (black screen) using the cyberlink avc decoder in media player classic when I tried a supposedly properly encoded h.264 1080p file.

I've got a visiontek radeon 2400 pro, SSE cpu (xp 2400) on an AGP system so I pretty much had to do all the mods. It works fine for 720p mkv files using coreavc.

I also installed the latest power dvd player (7.3.3516). I wasn't able to find the 264dss2.dll file. It did have 264dsse2.dll (along with 264dsse2.dll.0 ... 264dsse2.dll.3), so I renamed it to 264dsse.dll.

Still waiting for the h.264 playback guide to confirm if I can get HWA on my system.
Just a quick update... the step to copy 264sse2.dll to 264sse.dll is the one causing the black screen for me. Fixing that however brings it back to the previous state where playback using the cyberlink decoder stutters a bit compared to coreavc for 720p video.

A that must be a typo in my guide fixed it, the reason it doesnt work for you is that you A need to apply the exdeus patches, and B ned to make sure its a DXVA freindly file, i did all my tests with hddvd's and blurays, nothing confirmed for mkv yet

Sorry for the newbie question but how do you tell if HWA is working. I'm running a VT ATI AGP 2600Pro Is there an easy way to tell if HWA is working? I see about 70-80CPU utilization while playing KingKong in HD through PowerDVD Ultra

To see if DXVA is working, play the video in powerdvd, go to options while it playing, then to tab information, you should see the following info:

Display Information:
FourCC Code: NV12
Surface Type: Hardware Video Accelerator (DxVA)

Hardware Information:
Video Accelerator: DirectX VA (in use)

Besides this your cpu usage should be low, and the image shoud be stutterfree, (unless you have a 1ghz or slower cpu i guess, someone will have to confirm how slow you can go with the cpu)

[tetsuo55]

thank, you arfster.
I know you people are on the "state of the art" issues, but i´m a beginer and need your expertise in "htpc newbies" questions:
I decided to go for a AMD 4800+ dualcore + Sapphire 2600 pro PCIe 256Mb and XP. I will have the pc tomorrow. I have a DLP SP7210 720p projector.
I will play internet 720p /1080p files until I buy a xBox hd dvd.
I know I need a player, a decoder and may be a filter for SD DVD. It came to my mind what is using a friend of mine having a Nvidia 7600GT:Zoomplayer, Purevideo, FFdshow.
What is the best suite for this gpu? I mean, what player, decoder, filter do I need to install in order to get the best of my gpu and do what you mention on my first question.
I´ve read PDVD ultra is the only for the HW aceleration, sth that is made for and Ati card. what is the key of HW aceleration? Better PQ or less CPU usage only? Do I need HW aceleration??
Nvidia purevideo is a software decoder, and the Avivo..is Hardware decoder? do I get similar output?
Do I need to install the registry tweak http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/
and the most important problems I´ve read on this thead will be solved? Or shold I install tetsuo55 driver? http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati_winxp.php
Or sth else?
thanks

Follow my guide and everything should be fine, with your cpu you will not "Need" HW acceleration for those 720p/1080p mkv's or dvd's, you will be needing it for original hddvd's though

[ExDeus]

How to get Hardware acceration (3D, Dxva 1 and 2 and HW deinterlacing) working on any ati radeon card except the Radeon 7k, 8k, 9k-9250 Series.

-------------------------

At this point the system is fully Hardware accelerated.
Keep in mind that there are a host of different issues depending on the card being used.

I had the HD2600PRO AGP on an Athlon 64 3400+. I had DXVA working with all of the x264 encodes complying with High Profile @ L4.1.

Then, as I mentioned, that system went up in smoke.

I built a new Athlon 64 X2 4400+, and while I wait for my HD2600PRO PCIe to arrive, I'm running an X1600XT.

With a clean driver install, and even with the HD2x00 reg tweaks applied (just for kicks), this card is not providing DXVA for H264, despite that fact that it advertises "Accelerated MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264 decoding and transcoding" and "DXVA support".

When I check the Cyberlink decoder output, instead of "DXVA 1920X1080" or "DXVA 1280X720", I get "YUV 768X480" for both formats.

So, I don't really know anything about the X1600XT as far as DXVA goes, as I hadn't tried it before, but I do know that DXVA isn't as cut-and-dried for different cards as your guide might lead one to expect.

If anyone knows anything about why the Cyberlink decoder is downrezzing everything on the X1600XT, feel free to chime in.

[tetsuo55]

Thanks for the feedback, my guide has only been tested on a 9600XT and a HD2400pro, so any tests on other cards are welcome, however other people have used the driver and ati.dll trick to get gaming to work on all kinds of ati cards


You're problem is 2 fold

The X1600XT can only accelerate streams up to 720p, anything higher will default to software decoding.

It seems powerdvd is downsizing your videostreams, this is either a setting you (accidently) set in the powerDVD options, or there is something wrong with the settings of your system and PowerDVD is enforcing the hd rules by downsizing the image to SD standard


You can still confirm DXVA by using the DXdiag.exe to test direct3D, and running a regular DVD with DXVA enabled in PowerDVD

[mijoeldotor]

Follow my guide and everything should be fine, with your cpu you will not "Need" HW acceleration for those 720p/1080p mkv's or dvd's, you will be needing it for original hddvd's though

ok, so can I wait for your update when I´ll get the x box hd dvd drive or is a MUST to install it?:)
The Exdeus Reg teak is a MUST instead of having a 4800+ cpu? Or it not only correct hw issues but also Post-procesing issues?
What about the players? Are you using PDVD?...Zoomplayer and ffdshow team?..other Decoders?
Your comments will be much appreciated.

[tetsuo55]

1, You do not need to card for MKV's
2, The reg tweaks only apply to the HD2x00 cards
3, I only use PowerDVD at the moment because it's the only program where everything (except mkv) works

Everything that does not work in PowerDVD i run in Media Player classic installed with the k-lite mega codecpack

[mijoeldotor]

Thank you, man

[bastardguy23]

A that must be a typo in my guide fixed it, the reason it doesnt work for you is that you A need to apply the exdeus patches, and B ned to make sure its a DXVA freindly file, i did all my tests with hddvd's and blurays, nothing confirmed for mkv yet


I've got the exdeus patches installed and tried the demos on h264info.com/clips.html. I am assuming they aren't DXVA friendly.

[tetsuo55]

Those files you linked to are definately incompatible from what i read on the site

[inspector-71]

definately looking forward to part two

I was using the onboard gfx on my gigabyte 690g based board and everything was playing fine using ffdshow or haali/core avc

I decided to get a 2600xt yesterday to improve cpu usage and obviosuly ran into the problem everyone else has regarding not being able to get hardware acceleration going.

I installed powerdvd and while I can get hardware acceleration on a few h264 .mkv's and .ts, the majority don't work.

I unregistered the powerdvd codec and went back to coreavc and all work again but nothing now works in powerdvd.

Is there anyway to set up powerdvd for hd-dvd/blu ray playback while retaining coreavc for .mkv's etc without running a .bat everytime?

[bastardguy23]

Is there anyway to set up powerdvd for hd-dvd/blu ray playback while retaining coreavc for .mkv's etc without running a .bat everytime?

I am not sure what player you use for .mkv files but with media player classic you don't need a batch file to register/unregister codecs. In MPC you can simply force it to use coreavc instead of the cyberlink avc codec without affecting powerdvd.

[tetsuo55]

Just tell mediaplayer classic to use "prefer" CoreAVC in the external filters settings.

Also as far as i see your 680G onboard videocard should have full support for DXVA?

[Greg9504]

Hi,

I'm looking to get a 2600XT PCIe for my HTPC, which currently is using the on board Nvidia 6150 video. That card has problems (at least for me) with 1080i, and even with 720p I am getting a large amount of dropped frames (VMR9 in MyTheatre, DVB-S).

I'm using a Panasonic TH-50PZ77 TV (50" 1080p 60Hz). From looking at the specs of the 2600 cards, they only output 1080i. According to the gigabyte manual hxxp://america.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/vga_manual_gv-rx26t256h_e.pdf the supported 1080 resolutions are:

1920 x 1080 @75Hz for "flat panel" display
and
1080i 1920 x 1080 @30Hz for HDTV display

I'm a little confused on how these resolutions related to the native 1080p 60hz resolution of my display. Will I be able to set a custom resolution for the 1080p 60Hz Panasonic display? Or will I have to feed the display a 1080i feed if I use this card?

Thanks
Greg.

[inspector-71]

I am not sure what player you use for .mkv files but with media player classic you don't need a batch file to register/unregister codecs. In MPC you can simply force it to use coreavc instead of the cyberlink avc codec without affecting powerdvd.

I have looked at mpc and kmplayer with the specified codec options but before putting powerdvd in I was just viewing them through media centre (usind haali and coreavc)

[inspector-71]

Also as far as i see your 680G onboard videocard should have full support for DXVA?

I knew that but I thought it was already giving the acceleration on mkv's before I waded through this thread.

The review at toms hardware where they compare image quality and cpu usage for hddvd and blu ray h264 and vc1 convinced me I needed another card. i ddin't realise it would be pretty much useless for mkv's - so far.

[arfster]

I'm using a Panasonic TH-50PZ77 TV (50" 1080p 60Hz). From looking at the specs of the 2600 cards, they only output 1080i.

All graphics cards output progressive - interlaced is much trickier to do.

[DJBlu]

720p mkv 20fps bug fix, well working for me

I have tried this on 3 of my x264 encoded 720p HD movies and it removes the 20 fps slow down. I have tried this method to try and fix 1080p movies and it doesn't work. This is for 720p movies only. I haven't tried lower resolutions.

Firstly you need to download the following programs.

MKVtoolnix (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVtoolnix)
MKVExtractGui (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVExtractGUI)
H264info (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=138139&package_id=225029)

MKVGuiExtract files need to go into the program directory of MKVToolnix to work.

Once all three are installed

Open your MKV/AVI with MKV Gui Extract. Extract all the streams you need(all will be remuxed later) i.e. Audio, Subs etc.

Once all are extracted open H264info.

Input = Extracted H264/AVC Stream
Output = (Insert Name).h264

In the "For 23.976 -> 59.94 Frame Tripling/Doubling alternating (for 720p, 480p)" Box put in

4.2

now click Start. Wait several minutes.

Now Open MKVToolnix --> MKV Merge GUI

Add your New H264 stream with the audio streams etc you extracted earlier.
Click on the H264 stream and click format specific options.
Put in the frame rate of the H264 stream, mine have all been 23.975986 (you can find this out if you download avinaptic and look at the original mkv)
Input your new Output Filename and click Start Muxing.

If this doesn't work on all your movies then I appologise however I have tried this on 3 now and its removed the problem on all 3.

[arfster]

DjBLu: could you try running the extracted h264 video alone? If that works, the problem seems to be with Haali splitter.

[DJBlu]

DjBLu: could you try running the extracted h264 video alone? If that works, the problem seems to be with Haali splitter.

Have done and its the H264 stream that is causing the problem.

[arfster]

Have done and its the H264 stream that is causing the problem.

Yeah, seems the same for me. Muxxed one troublesome 720p mkv using your method, and it works :-) Will try others later.

If this does work, it should prove easy to do a little batch file for this, so you could set the computer to fix all your mkvs overnight.


Edit: done four 720p mkvs that won't play normally, now they all do. Nice find!

[Precacher]

A little tip: To avoid audio and video sync problems, you can also use the two TimeCode text files, created by MKV Extract, when using MKV Merge in the final stage...

[ExDeus]

In the "For 23.976 -> 59.94 Frame Tripling/Doubling alternating (for 720p, 480p)" Box put in

4.2
I believe that's the "Level (1 - 5.1)" box where you enter the level. The label is on the right, not the left. Those are notes applying to the "3:2 Pulldown" checkbox above it.

I'm testing using 4.1, since that's the level we should be shooting for, for DXVA.

Thanks for the find. I'll report back with my results on forcing L4.1 for both L4.1-compliant streams and non-L4.1-compliant streams.

Also, "23.975986" appears to be very accurate, but the actual framerate should be 24000/1001, which is one of the default options in the mkvmerge GUI. That's the framerate you get when you take 24fps film, make a 30000/1001 (29.97fps) HD/DVD/BD via telecine, and then use inverse telecine to get back to 24000/1001 (23.98fps). If AVInaptic or some other tool tells you the framerate is "23.975986", you really want 24000/1001.

[rdunnill]

I deleted the nVidia drivers on my MCE 2005 installation, and deleted and reinstalled PowerDVD Ultra. Now I get excellent-quality playback of Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

That fix didn't work in Vista Home Premium x64, however. At least I am back in the HDM game; glad I had a backup!

Is it possible to put together a quick-reference troubleshooting guide so that others don't have to go through all this trouble?

[tetsuo55]

720p mkv 20fps bug fix, well working for me

I have tried this on 3 of my x264 encoded 720p HD movies and it removes the 20 fps slow down. I have tried this method to try and fix 1080p movies and it doesn't work. This is for 720p movies only. I haven't tried lower resolutions.

Firstly you need to download the following programs.

MKVtoolnix (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVtoolnix)
MKVExtractGui (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVExtractGUI)
H264info (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=138139&package_id=225029)

MKVGuiExtract files need to go into the program directory of MKVToolnix to work.

Once all three are installed

Open your MKV/AVI with MKV Gui Extract. Extract all the streams you need(all will be remuxed later) i.e. Audio, Subs etc.

Once all are extracted open H264info.

Input = Extracted H264/AVC Stream
Output = (Insert Name).h264

In the "For 23.976 -> 59.94 Frame Tripling/Doubling alternating (for 720p, 480p)" Box put in

4.2

now click Start. Wait several minutes.

Now Open MKVToolnix --> MKV Merge GUI

Add your New H264 stream with the audio streams etc you extracted earlier.
Click on the H264 stream and click format specific options.
Put in the frame rate of the H264 stream, mine have all been 23.975986 (you can find this out if you download avinaptic and look at the original mkv)
Input your new Output Filename and click Start Muxing.

If this doesn't work on all your movies then I appologise however I have tried this on 3 now and its removed the problem on all 3.


i am familiar with this method, basically what it does is change the header of the h264 packets to 4.1 instead of what they where (probably 5.1)

What this means is that its still a 5.1 encode with all the b-frames and other wierd crap that was a possiible suspect

Can you try to input 5.1 instead of 4. and see if the file works? if it does then we have found the problem (corrupt packet creation by x264)

If it doesn't work with 5.1 then its an issue with the cyberlink decoder, it probably assumes some things when 5.1 is chosen which breaks compatibility

[ExDeus]

@arfster

Just to follow up, the streams I encoded at 1920x864 and 1920x816 with 5 reference frames played successfully with DXVA.

So, without the added 50% yo